“Why the New Europe is a chance for our continent and the Middle East”

Manuel Ochsenreiter, director of the Berlin-based German Center for Eurasian Studies
The director of the German Center for Eurasian Studies, Manuel Ochsenreiter, published an opinion piece about the Eurosceptic movements and their geopolitics in the Lebanese “Al Akhbar” newspaper.

English translation:

The day of the Brexit referendum is a historical day for Europe – and not just for Europe. It is the day of the end of the myth of the invulnerability of Brussel´s super state which is called “European Union”. This so-called “union” which was growing within the last decades and was swallowing one European state after the other received its first heavy punch from the people. The growing process is over. Now the union will shrink. Eurosceptics in Netherlands and Denmark announced already that they will push for an EU-referendum as well. The Brexit day might be considered as the “beginning of the end of the EU” in future history books.
But there are still myths out there. Countless so-called “political analysts” are busy with coffee cup reading style “analysis”. Most of these interpretations are horribly wrong or biased.
One of the main narratives is that the Brexit camp and the whole Eurosceptic community is driven by xenophobia, Islamophobia and hatred towards everyone non-European. This narrative blames the Eurosceptic movements to be fascist and extremist.
This narrative serves the EU elites. And it is spread by Brussels and its servants through whole Europe and unfortunately copy-pasted by many non-European media outlets – even in the Middle East.
This narrative is wrong. The anti-EU-camp consists of European patriots, conservatives, even liberals and socialists. And yes, the anti-EU camp includes as well an extremist lunatic fringe – as any other political camp does.
The main forces of the anti-EU camp are far away from lunatic extremism and xenophobia. They accept immigration, but they refuse uncontrolled mass migration. The “Islamophobia” is caused exactly by those extremists who are showing their horrible brutal performance in these days in the Middle East. Frankly speaking, a serious talk between a Middle East resistance supporter and an intelligent Eurosceptic wouldn´t end in a conflict for sure.
The narrative of the “wild, ugly and fascist” Eurosceptic movements makes people believe that Brussel´s state is automatically the better choice. The EU might be full of mistakes, but still better than the “dangerous radicals” such as Marine Le Pen, Nigel Farage, Frauke Petry or Heinz Christian Strache.
Forces pushing for this narrative forget completely that the Eurosceptic camp didn´t send until today one single gun and one single Euro to the extremists fighting in Syria against the Syrian army and killing civilians. The Eurosceptic camp didn´t send until today one single nuclear submarine to the Israeli army. The Eurosceptic camp is not responsible for the sanction politics against Syria. The Eurosceptic camp is not in support of Saudi-Arabia. The Eurosceptic camp didn´t bombard Libya. The EU elites and their servants in the EU states are responsible for all the mentioned examples.
In other words: for countries such as Syria the EU is already one of the most dangerous enemies. Merkel, Hollande, Cameron are the politicians who are in support of violence and terrorism. But especially since the migration crisis German chancellor Angela Merkel is portrayed as the new “Mother Theresa” of Europe – also in Middle Eastern media.
On the other hand German Eurosceptic politicians such as MEP Marcus Pretzell (AfD party) demand the immediate lifting of the Syrian sanctions and any stop of support of terrorism in Syria. But he demands as well the protection of the European borders which is why he is demonized as a cold hearted devil by European mainstream media and some Middle Eastern news outlets.
The Eurosceptic camp is colorful and a pool of many different, sometimes even contrasting opinions. But in some important points the Eurosceptics show unity: Europe should be a continent which doesn´t support terrorists, Europe should be a continent which handles the migration crisis not just by building walls and fences, but by ending the meddling in other countries and causing those migration waves, Europe should stop with its sanctions politics towards other countries. Most of Eurosceptic movements even criticize NATO politics and want to leave the Western military alliance. All these opinions contradict the recent EU politics.
The Eurosceptic movements know that the EU is an entity which can´t be “just reformed a bit”. The EU is anti-European. It made our continent a US-American proxy, a political and ideological occupied entity. None of the groups and parties of the pro-EU lobby are willing to change that. They feel comfortable as Washington´s tail.
For the Middle East that means you can talk, negotiate and even cuddle with the EU elites. But they will always show their supremacist attitude towards you by supporting your worst enemies such as Wahabi and Salafi groups.
The “New Europe”, the Europe after the EU, might become the “real Europe”, the “European Europe” which replaces the “American Europe”. The representatives of this new Europe, today´s Eurosceptics, might be demonized in Western and parts of the Middle Eastern mainstream media. They might seem sometimes loud or flamboyant. They might not share the innocent but deeply dishonest “humanitarian smile” of Angela Merkel. But they will not destroy other nations.

Manuel Ochsenreiter
Director of the German Center for Eurasian Studies